Had time to talk to gf today while driving to the the city of great malls to buy gifts for Binlaw and immediate relatives. Apparently there’s some strange stuff going on outside of this nicely polished bubble we live in. A woman was found in the mystical jungles of Cambodia after she had been missing for 18 years. In all honesty, when you’re missing for that long, you’re no longer considered missing, rather you’re presumed dead and usually by some vicious, unimaginable manner that only fans of Japanese horror movies can comprehend.
While talking to gf about this bizarre bit of news, it occurred to me that this is not nearly as tragic or devastating as the inevitable “retraining” she will have to endure to be acclimatized to living in socialist Vietnam. At least in the jungle she led a simplistic, almost ideal life of utopia that only wild animals and uninterrupted nature can provide. She wakes up at whatever hour according to her whim, or usually when hunger becomes unbearable, and forage for food provided by nature, or in this instance, by human. She had no demanding, grueling work schedule, and did not have to tolerate the asinine higher authority called boss from mid-management, who takes two hour lunches and unabashedly request that you pick up his girlfriend’s laundry every Thursday. No social pressure to wear that custom tailored suit, to own that yuppie inspired, energy efficient automobile, to comply with her parents’ expectations of 2.5 kids, or to be saddled with a procrastinating spouse that’s allergic to consistent, gainful employment.
The woman probably didn’t have to fend off gossipy, vindictive women who claim to be her committed friends, but the moment she leaves the room, they ridicule her latest haircut blunder or her substandard, discounted shoes. This is assuming that her animal friends lack the requisite human quality that sets us apart, and that she had “friends” in that aspect. She probably did not have to worry about whether her boobs were of the appropriate proportion, that her boots had to match her bags, or whether her weight overshadows her qualification for the job.
Despite all the positive, irrefutable possibilities, particularly when deliberate isolation and solitude is such an unacceptable commodity in this day and age, there are some potent aspects of life that the woman has clearly been wrongfully denied. Conversing with gf made me realized that it was that exact sort of meaningful exchange that the woman will never completely comprehend or fully appreciate. Further, the higher powers created liquid alcohol for very sound reasons, so negating the intoxicating effect of alcohol for that many years is pure lunacy.
She is a displaced refugee in her own family. Despite their substantial love for her, they have a long, tumultuous road ahead in preparing her to enter society with any semblance of expected normalcy. Why force her to humanize when she has had 18 years of pure, unadulterated bliss? Because all good things come to an end sometime.